Colin Munro

A South Africa born, Colin Munro, is an explosive opening batsman who plays New Zealand internationally. He is a hard-hitting left-handed batsman who prefers opening the batting, apart from being a gun fielder and a part-time medium pacer, which makes a complete package for T20 cricket. Munro carries an image of a T20 favourite across the globe, but the all-rounder had his own struggles in the initial days. 

The Durban-born debuted for Auckland back in 2006 and was also part of New Zealand Under-19, which contested in the World Cup that year. However, Munro didn’t have an instant impact until the 2011-12 season. In his breakthrough season, he scored a century and three fifties for Auckland. And bettered his performances by scoring three centuries in six innings, including an unbeaten 269 in the following season. 

Soon, the all-rounder was rewarded with a New Zealand call-up, as he was picked for the tour to South Africa in late 2012. On his debut tour, he played three T20Is, two ODIs and a Test match, where he couldn’t do much, apart from hitting his maiden ODI half-century and bagging two Test wickets in Faf du Plessis and Robin Peterson. He remained on the fringes of selection until he blasted 73 off just 39 balls in a T20I clash against Bangladesh in 2013. 

Since then, Munro became a regular feature of the New Zealand T20 side but has been in and out of the 50-over format, owing to his inconsistencies. His ability to go berserk against any bowling at any condition was backed by Kane Williamson, and he sealed the Number 3 spot for the Kiwis in the 2016 World T20. The all-rounder turned that confidence into performance, showing some consistency in the 2016-17 domestic season, to get back into the ODI squad. 

The southpaw nailed Brendon McCullum’s spot to become a regular with Martin Guptill at top of the order. That season, the dasher took his game a notch higher as he smacked three T20I centuries in a span of a year in 2017-18. He shone both in the ODIs and T20Is, as a result, he was named in the World Cup squad for the 2019 event. He began the tournament as the first-choice opener, but drop-in-form meant Munro got replaced by Henry Nicholls midway. 

After the pinnacle tournament, the dasher saw him out of the ODI and later from the shortest format as well. He, then, started focusing more on franchise cricket. Over the years, he has been a prominent performer in leagues such as - IPL, PSL, BBL, CPL, The Hundred, and many others. 

Munro desperately wants to get back in the New Zealand dressing room, however, he feels, having played his last international game and he quoted, he’s “extremely gutted to miss out on this (2021 World T20 squad).

(As of August 2021)